When it collies to the safety of young children, fire is a Rae' cot's nightmare. Just the thought of their young ones tripped in their cribs and beds by a raging nocturnal blaze is enough to make most mothers and fathers take every pre-caution to ensure their children's safety. Little wonder that when fire-retardant children's pajamas first hit the market, they proved an overnight success. Within a few short years more than 200 million pairs were sold, and the sales of mil-lions more were all but guaranteed. For their manufacturers, the future could not have been brighter. Then, like a bolt from the blue, came word that the pajamas were killers. The Usacan Consumer Protection Directorate (UCPD) moved quickly to ban their sale and recall millions of pairs. Reason: The pajamas contained the flame-retardant chemical Tris (2,3-dibromoprophyl), which had been found to cause kidney cancer in children.
Because of its toxicity, the sleepwear couldn't even be thrown away, let alone sold. Indeed, the UCPD left no doubt about how the pajamas were to be disposed of-buried or burned or used as industrial wiping cloths. Whereas just months earlier the manufacturers of the Tris-impregnated pajamas couldn't fill orders fast enough, suddenly they were worrying about how to get rid of the millions of pairs now sitting in warehouses.
Soon, however, ads began appearing in the classified pages of a number of Usacan publications: "Tris-Tris-Tris We will buy any fabric containing Tris," read one. Another said, "Tris-we will purchase any large quantities of garments containing
Tris." The ads had been placed by exporters, who began buying up the pajamas, usually at 10 to 30 percent of the normal wholesale price. Their intent was clear: to dump the carcinogenic pajamas on overseas markets.
Read the case and answer the following
1- What are the relevant facts?
- try to be as neutral as possible; we all have biases.
- It's impossible to know all the facts about a situation; you may have to make some reasonable assumptions.
- Facts need to be interpreted, by you and by others.
2- What are the ethical issues?
- An ethical issue is a point of debate or a question about what ought to be done in the situation; a very complicated case may raise a number of such issues.
- These could be systemic, organizational or individual.
- Pay attention to your feelings or intuitions as well.
3- Who are the primary stakeholders?
- Who is or will be affected by the decision?
- The stakeholders could change depending on what course of action is taken.
4- What are the possible alternatives?
- What are the ways in which the issue could be resolved?
- What courses of action could be taken?
5- What are the ethics of the alternatives?
- This is the core of ethical analysis and where our ethical theories are particularly useful.
- Each possible course of action should be evaluated, estimating how each alternative affects stakeholders.
6- What are the practical constraints?
7- What action(s) should be taken?
- weighing all the factors so far considered, reach a conclusion about which alternative solution is best.
- How would you implement the decision; this requires a reasonable amount of detail and specificity.
- You should be able to explain your decision to others
- and lastly, if you made this decision, would you be proud or ashamed if others found out what you did and it was made public?